College push grows

By Jim Mynard
TIMBARRA residents have said loud and clear that they want a secondary college built on land originally set aside for educational purposes, but made surplus.
Residents spoke out at a public meeting held in the Timbarra Primary School Hall entitled Housing versus Sports.
They used the opportunity to highlight the fact that they had been dudded over promises for education and sporting facilities.
People said families bought homes in the Urban Land Authority development at Timbarra on the promise that a secondary college and primary school would be built at the corner of Parkhill Drive and Ernst Wanke Road, Berwick.
The primary school was slow coming and both the Kennett and Bracks governments classified the remainder of the land as surplus with a decision not to build a secondary college.
Edrington Ward councillor Brian Hetherton said the area lacked sporting facilities because past councils had relied on the school being built and a joint use agreement being put in place. “The council went hand in hand with the government with a plan to build schools and joint use sporting facilities,” he said.
“The council said why bother to buy land for sport when it would be available through schools?”
He said joint use of school sporting facilities worked well in other areas, but the government had made the land surplus, which meant no school and no sporting facilities for Timbarra. “We now have a chance to rectify mistakes made years ago by lobbying for the land to be restored to the community,” he said.
Speakers at the meeting complained that they were unable to get their children enrolled at existing secondary colleges in the region.
Demand for sporting facilities in the Narre Warren North area is at a premium, but many speakers took the view that a school, including sporting facilities, could and should be built.
Liberal Party candidate for Narre Warren North Mick Morland assured the meeting that a Liberal Government would build the college.
And Narre Warren North MP Luke Donellan said he would soon make a statement on his government’s decision on future use of the site.
However, the City of Casey earlier this year acquired a section of the original site with the intention of building a basketball stadium and full size oval.
This project would also involve upgrading the existing oval. Casey mayor Kevin Bradford said this prevented a full secondary college from being built on the site. “The remaining land would only accommodate a campus,” he said.
The meeting agreed to participate in a petition demanding that the land be acquired for public use and that all levels of government address the lack of out door sporting facilities.
The meeting also demanded that the three levels of government meet to formulate land acquisitions grants and other options to acquire the land and that a secondary college be built on the site.